Daniel Bryan
In 2002, Bryan came World Wrestling Entertainment to compete on its secondary programming, Velocity and Heat, initially as enhancement talent before being allowed to compete in longer matches; he once wrestled future WWE Champion John Cena in a losing effort. Bryan made his debut as a WWE contracted wrestler on January 4, 2010, in a dark match prior to Raw, defeating Chavo Guerrero. On February 16, it was announced that he would wrestle on the first season of the NXT show with The Miz as his storyline mentor. He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, losing by submission to the World Heavyweight Champion, Chris Jericho. After the match, Bryan was attacked by The Miz for disrespecting him earlier in the show. Over the next several weeks, Bryan failed to win a single match, but despite having a win-loss record of 0–5, he was ranked first in the inaugural Pros' Poll on the March 30 episode of NXT. After losing five more matches on NXT, Bryan earned his first victory on the May 10 episode of Raw by pinning Santino Marella in an eight-on-four handicap match. The following night on NXT, he was eliminated from the show, along with Michael Tarver, as neither man had confidence in themselves to win the competition. Despite his elimination, he appeared on the following episodes of NXT, being interviewed by Matt Striker and attacking both Michael Cole, who had constantly belittled him on commentary, and The Miz. On the May 31 episode of Raw, Bryan defeated The Miz in a singles match, and after the match, he threw The Miz into Cole, who was commentating at ringside. The following week on Raw, the season one NXT rookies interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors, the announce team, and the ring announcer Justin Roberts, before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment, turning Bryan and the other rookies heel in the process. On June 11, 2010, WWE announced that Bryan was fired from WWE. His release was put in a storyline, where the rest of the NXT rookies kicked him out of the group for showing remorse for his actions and declared that Bryan will never return to the WWE again. On August 15, 2010, Bryan returned to WWE at the SummerSlam pay-per-view, where he was revealed as the surprise seventh member of Team WWE for the seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against The Nexus, the other NXT season one competitors. At the event, Bryan was one of the two final members of Team WWE, and managed to eliminate two members of the Nexus, but was eliminated by Wade Barrett after his former pro The Miz, whose place he took in Team WWE, attacked him. Despite this, Team WWE won the match. The following night, he was revealed as part of the Raw roster. He feuded with the Miz, with both interfering in each other's matches, and The Miz being aided by Alex Riley, his rookie from the second season of NXT. At Night of Champions, Bryan defeated The Miz to win the WWE United States Championship, his first championship in WWE. He then successfully defended the championship two weeks later, by defeating The Miz and John Morrison in a triple threat submissions count anywhere match at Hell in a Cell. Bryan went on to challenge then Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler to a Champion vs. Champion match at Bragging Rights as a special attraction Smackdown vs. RAW match, defeating Ziggler in a highly acclaimed match. Bryan went on to successfully defend his United States tite against Ted DiBiase at Survivor Series. On the November 30 episode of NXT, it was announced that Bryan was returning to the show as the Pro to NXT Rookie Derrick Bateman on season four. In late 2010, The Bella Twins began competing for Bryan's affection, leading to them supporting him at ringside and competing in mixed tag team matches together. On the January 24, 2011 episode of Raw, it was revealed that Bryan had been secretly dating Gail Kim, who began accompanying him to ringside. On the March 14 episode of Raw, Bryan lost the United States Championship to Sheamus. Bryan was originally scheduled to have his rematch against Sheamus for the United States Championship on the main card at WrestleMania XXVII, but the match was rescheduled as a preshow dark match; a lumberjack match that ended in a no contest when the lumberjacks fought among themselves to trigger the start of a battle royal. Bryan lost his title rematch the next night on Raw, after which he was saved from Sheamus by the debuting Sin Cara. On April 26, Bryan was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft. Bryan debuted for the SmackDown brand on the May 6 episode, when he lost to Sheamus. Cody Rhodes then started a feud with Bryan by attacking him after losing their match and placing a paper bag on his head. Bryan then aligned with Sin Cara to feud with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. On June 28, Bryan returned to NXT to manage Derrick Bateman once again. On July 17 at Money in the Bank, Bryan won the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match which earned him a World Heavyweight Championship at any point within the following year. On the July 22 episode of SmackDown, Bryan declared he would cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania XXVIII. After several months of losing matches, Bryan began a feud with World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry on the November 4 episode of SmackDown, after Henry challenged Bryan to a non-title match to prove that Bryan could not become champion. During the match, Big Show knocked out Henry, making him win by disqualification. Big Show, as a friend of Bryan, then urged a groggy Bryan to cash in his championship match, but Henry recovered and attacked both Bryan and Big Show before the match could start. After losing a rematch, Bryan suffered attacks from Henry the following two weeks. On November 25, Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for a title match and quickly pinned Henry. However, SmackDown authority figure Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Bryan later admitted he betrayed his principles by not waiting for WrestleMania, but explained he felt strongly about exacting revenge on Henry and realised he may not make it to WrestleMania due to Henry's continued attacks. Regardless of his briefcase, Bryan won a four-way match on the same episode of SmackDown to become the contender for Henry's championship. On the live November 29 SmackDown, Henry managed to pin Bryan to retain his title in a steel cage match. Also in November, Bryan started being involved in a romantic storyline with AJ. Bryan cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on December 18 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs against Big Show, who had just defeated Henry and subsequently received a DDT onto a steel chair, which allowed Bryan to secure a pinfall victory and become the World Heavyweight Champion. In the following weeks, tension was teased between Bryan and Big Show, with Big Show unhappy about Bryan taking the world championship from him, and Bryan being displeased about Big Show's lack of appreciation for Bryan's help in matches against Henry. As World Champion, Bryan began a slow heel turn as he gradually showed signs of overconfidence and arrogance, with Bryan beginning to partake in excessive victory celebrations, even when he won his matches by disqualification or count-out. Also, despite AJ's declaration of love for Bryan, Bryan avoided saying that he loved her in return. In January 2012, Bryan successfully defended his title thrice; the first occasion against Big Show when Bryan goaded Mark Henry into attacking him and causing a disqualification; the second occasion a No Disqualification rematch with Show which ended abruptly after Show accidentally ran into AJ, hospitalizing her within the storyline for which Bryan blamed him; the third occasion against Henry in a Lumberjack match when Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to interfere and cause a no contest. This culminated in a Triple Threat Steel Cage match to exclude outside interference; at the 2012 Royal Rumble event, Bryan escaped the cage after freeing himself from Big Show's grasp to retain his championship. At Elimination Chamber, Bryan defeated Big Show, Cody Rhodes, The Great Khali, Santino Marella, and Wade Barrett in an Elimination Chamber match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. After the match, Sheamus attacked Bryan and chose him as his WrestleMania opponent for the World Heavyweight Championship. In March, Bryan began to mistreat AJ, publicly demanding her to shut up and claiming that she always got in his way. Despite these actions, AJ continued to stand by Bryan. Bryan's reign as world champion ended when Sheamus defeated him in eighteen seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII due to Bryan being distracted with receiving a good luck kiss from AJ. On the next episode of SmackDown, Bryan blamed AJ for his world title loss and ended their relationship. Despite AJ's attempts to mend their relationship, Bryan cruelly rebuffed her multiple times, leaving AJ an emotional wreck. At Extreme Rules, Bryan failed to regain the World Heavyweight Championship from Sheamus in a 2-out-of-3 falls match, losing two falls to one. The following night on Raw, Bryan became the number one contender to CM Punk's WWE Championship when he won the Beat The Clock challenge by defeating Jerry "The King" Lawler in under 3 minutes. Bryan received his title shot at Over the Limit; he suffered a controversial loss when Bryan rolled back onto his shoulders as he applied the Yes Lock on Punk, Punk tapped out immediately after the referee counted a pinfall win for Punk. Shortly before Over the Limit, Bryan interfered in a match between Punk and Kane to frame Punk attacking Kane with a steel chair, leading to a three-way feud. During this time, a jilted AJ turned her affections to both Punk and Kane. On the June 1 episode of SmackDown, Bryan's interference caused WWE Championship match between Punk and Kane to end in a double disqualification, resulting in a triple threat match being set up at No Way Out, where Punk managed to retain the title after AJ distracted Kane. On the June 25 episode of Raw, Bryan defeated Punk and Kane in a non-title three-way elimination match to earn another shot at the WWE Championship. At Money in the Bank, Bryan failed again to capture the WWE Championship from Punk in a No Disqualification match with AJ as special guest referee. The following night on Raw, AJ accepted Bryan's marriage proposal. The following week on Raw 1000, Bryan's wedding ended in failure when AJ left Bryan at the altar and instead accepted Mr. McMahon's offer of the position of permanent Raw General Manager. Bryan's night turned from bad to worse as he was later attacked by The Rock and insulted by celebrity Charlie Sheen. AJ's rejection of Bryan turned him into an angry and bitter individual and resulted in Bryan lashing out at audiences. AJ continued to exact her revenge on Bryan by denying him a WWE Championship shot and instead forcing him to face Kane at SummerSlam, where Bryan emerged victorious. As a result of Bryan and Kane's issues, AJ enrolled them in anger management classes hosted by Dr. Shelby. They were later forced to "hug it out". At the arrangement of Dr. Shelby and AJ, the two adversaries formed a team whose constant bickering and infighting even during matches inadvertently resulted in them defeating the Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young) to become the number one contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship on the September 10 episode of Raw and then defeating champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth to win the Tag Team Championship at Night of Champions. Bryan and Kane made their first successful title defense the following night on Raw, defeating the former champions in a rematch. The following week on Raw, "Team Hell No" was chosen as the official team name via a Twitter poll while Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow) started a feud with Bryan and Kane. On October 28 at Hell in a Cell, Team Hell No lost to the Rhodes Scholars via disqualification, but retained their title. Team Hell No made another successful title defense on the November 14 of Main Event by defeating the Rhodes Scholars in a rematch. On the November 26 episode of Raw, after Kane lost to WWE Champion CM Punk in a non-title match, both Bryan and Ryback, who had attempted to save Kane, were assaulted by The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns). This attack had the effect of uniting Bryan and Kane, and after The Shield and Team Hell No, along with Ryback, attacked each other on the December 3 episode of Raw, all six men were decreed to face each other in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, where The Shield was victorious. On the following episode of Main Event, Team Hell No defeated Team Rhodes Scholars to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the December 31 episode of Raw, Team Hell No successfully defended their titles against 3MB (Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater). Bryan ended 2012 having wrestled the second most TV/PPV matches that year with 90. On January 27 at the 2013 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Team Hell No retained the WWE Tag Team Championship against Team Rhodes Scholars. Later that night, after Bryan eliminated Kane from the Royal Rumble Match, Antonio Cesaro threw Bryan out of the ring immediately. Kane caught Bryan before he hit the floor and despite Bryan's begging refused to put him back into the ring. On the February 4 episode of Raw, Bryan was inserted into the World Heavyweight Championship #1 contender Elimination Chamber match after he defeated Rey Mysterio, after which, the returning Mark Henry attacked both men. On February 17 at Elimination Chamber, Bryan was the first man eliminated from the match, courtesy of Henry. Over the next month, leading up to WrestleMania 29, Bryan and Kane had various matches, together and apart. During that time, they were challenged by Dolph Ziggler and Big E. Langston for the WWE Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 29 where the team (Bryan and Kane) emerged victorious. Category:World Heavyweight Champions Category:United States Champions Category:Slammy Award Winners Category:Money In The Bank Winners Category:WWE Tag Team Champions Category:Current Champions Category:Current Superstar